We Choose To Love

#2062

“Love is the will to extend one’s self for the purpose of nurturing one’s own or another’s spiritual growth... Love is as love does. Love is an act of will―namely, both an intention and an action. Will also implies choice. We do not have to love. We choose to love.”― M. Scott Peck

“Love is as love does.”

I read that quote by M. Scott Peck this morning, and it made me pause. He argues that love isn’t just a feeling; it is an act of will—both an intention and an action.

But it was the final four words that truly challenged me: We choose to love.

Is love truly a choice? We’re taught that love is something that grabs the heart, a force we are powerless against. It’s the “falling” we hear about in every romantic song and poem.

So, I sat with the quote for a while—spending almost half the time I’d planned for writing just wrestling with it.

Then, I realized: It is a choice.

It is the choice to intentionally respond to an invitation. Someone or something enters our lives and invites us to expand, to open up, and to evolve. It is a challenging invitation, and it isn’t always easy.

Yet, we only begin to truly grow when we choose to say “yes.”

Yes to love.